Danielle and the Dixon Brothers
by princessmikey14
Summary: She didn't know very many people at the beginning of all this. She was just a woman trying to survive in the world as it was. She was alone in the big city of Atlanta for most of the time until she came across a man with a hacked off hand. He needed her help and she hesitantly helped him. Each of them were somebody the other could count through the hell they had to battle. Daryl/OC
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is a little bit of a re-write of an old idea…I'm doing it a little bit differently this time, so if it sounds similar to one of mine, that's why. I have since deleted that story because I think that this plotline will work out a lot better. The title may change. If you have any suggestions for it, please let me know :)**

"What the hell are they doing?" the black haired woman asked with a low sigh as she sat against the old oak tree, her knees were up towards her chest and she was idly messing with the shoe strings on her brown leather boots.

"Whether 'er not to let us stay," Merle replied with an eye roll. "Officer Friendly don' like me too much."

Danielle scoffed. "Ain't that obvious?" She shook her head, realizing she had been around Merle too long, she was beginning to pick up a slight Southern twang and she didn't know that it suited her too well.

"What did you do?" she asked. Merle just shrugged.

"Don' matter much now." Though he didn't say it, she knew that they were both thinking about the same thing. It wasn't so much that Merle had been locked on the roof to begin with and that he had cut off his own hand…They were thinking about how he would be dead had it not been for her... The Governor had a part in keeping Merle alive, but Danielle had found him first and she kept him from bleeding out.

"I guess not," she replied.

"Migh' be jus' the two of us 'lone 'gain."

"Your brother won't let that happen."

"Did ya see 'im? He's one of 'em, he'll stay if we end up goin'," Merle said.

"No, he won't."

"How much ya wanna bet?" he asked.

"I don't know, you don't have much now to bet."

"If I win, ya have to do what you've been dying to do since the day you laid eyes on my hot body," he made a motion that simply made her roll her eyes and shake her head.

"What would that be? Slap you?"

"Oh know, Dani girl. Ya know what 'm talkin' 'bout," he winked. "Love sweet love, mm mm mm."

"I better get something damn good out of my end of the bet if I win then."

"Name it."

"You will find me candy, a coke, and a pack of cigarettes," Danielle decided. That wouldn't have sounded like much a year ago, but now, it was like gold. All of those things were rarities and she just wanted to savor something from her old world. Plus, she knew that he wouldn't win. Daryl would come with them if they ended up having to leave.

"Fine. Man oh man though girlie, you win either way," he grinned. She knew by now to just ignore his vulgar way of joking. Even if he happened to win the bet, she didn't know that he would even cash in his reward; they were close, but in a different way. They were sexually close, just mentally. She had been the only one that he could count on after he was left on the roof. "Here 'e comes," Merle said. Danielle held her hand out for Merle to pull her up from the ground.

"Come on now, Dixon, help a lady up."

Merle scoffed. "I know ya better than ya think—ya ain't no lady." He pulled her up anyway though.

"Maybe not," she replied with a half smile.

"C'mon, we ain't goin' back to that prison," Daryl said lowly. Danielle was trying to pick out the similarities between the two brothers. They did both have the same blue eyes, but Daryl's hair was darker, and their faces didn't look too much alike. Thinking about it, physically the only thing that they had in common was their distinct blue eyes.

"As in they won't let us, right?" Danielle asked.

Daryl nodded, but looked at her for a moment and studied her, trying to figure her out. What was going on between the younger woman and his brother? It wasn't like it mattered, but he would kind of like to know.

"Goddamn it," Merle cursed.

"What did I tell you, looks like you owe me, big time."

"I ain't givin' you shit."

"Really?" she looked over at him with her head tilted and a serious look on her face. "We had a bet, Merle. If you don't fulfill your loosing end of the bet then that makes you a pussy," she knew it would piss him off. That was the only reason that she did it. She would've held up her end of the deal...most likely

"Dammit," he cursed again. "Fine, but I ain't promisin' ya when it happens."

"Fair enough," she replied as they walked through the woods. She looked over at Daryl again and noticed that he was defiantly more of a looker than he older brother. Clearly, he was a lot quieter too, which was a nice break from Merle and his big mouth. "I guess I should tell you my name," she said. He looked over at her, but then placed his eyes back on the trees. "Danielle or Dani, whatever you want to call me…"

"Daryl," the younger Dixon said. "How do y'all know each other?" It wasn't common for Merle to have a woman around for long. The fact that he had a certain amount of respect for Danielle made things even more odd. If Daryl knew one thing, it was that Merle wasn't the smoothest talker when it came to keeping the ladies around. Merle walked up to his brother's side; rather than taking up the rear of the group so he could answer the question.

"She kept me 'live after I was forced to cut off my hand," Merle replied.

"I was still stuck in that damn city and I happened to see some psycho stumbling up the road, his hand bleeding all over the place—I thought he was a walker so I was going to go up and stab him in the head, but then I realized he was alive. I wanted to just turn around and leave—but when I noticed that he was alive…I couldn't just kill him. So I did what I could," Danielle explained.

After a few hours of listening to the two brothers argue, Danielle had had enough! "Okay!" she exclaimed, grabbing one of each of their shoulders. "I can't take any more of this shit, it is not doing us any good for you two to fight over ever single little thing! I don't give a shit if that's the Yellow Jacket or the fucking Nile River out there! I just know that we have to get the hell out of here and find some place that's remotely safe!"

Merle scoffed, old habits died hard and he still didn't like for her to try and have any influence on anything that he did.

"She migh' be righ'," Daryl mumbled. "It don' really matter much. We—" He froze upon hearing what, to him, sounded like a baby crying in the distance.

"You hear it too?" Danielle asked.

"That's a baby, Daryl replied. "C'mon!" He started to run towards the sound.

"That ain't no baby. Next y'all 're gonna piss in my ear an' tell me 's rainin'."

Danielle and Daryl both ignored him as they ran to the bridge with a bunch of people. There was, indeed, a baby crying its head off. Daryl couldn't help but think of Judith back at the prison. She was so small and he worried for her safety—even if she wasn't his child. He was part of the family that Glenn had described; everyone at the prison was a family.

Together, Daryl and Danielle both took out as many walkers as they could. They shot and killed all of the walkers in sight. It took Merle a minute to actually join in, but the three finished it all rather quickly. Merle decided that he needed some form of payment from the group of Hispanics and opened the back car door to take what he wanted.

"Get out," Daryl said gruffly.

"Ya better not be talkin' to me, baby brother," Merle replied.

"I said get out," the younger Dixon commanded yet again. Merle's jaw tightened and he stepped out of the vehicle. "Go on, get outa here!"

The two brothers stormed away and across the Yellowjacket Bridge. Danielle didn't know what to do exactly, she kind of just followed the other men and didn't say anything as she started arguing.

"Where ya think yer goin'?" Merle called to his brother. "Back to yer prison."

"Least it'll be better than bein' here with ya!"

"Ya know I ain't welcome back there." Merle stopped Daryl by pulling at the back of his brother's shirt. It ripped right away to reveal scars on the younger man's back. Danielle knew the story behind them, she knew Merle's story and he knew hers. It wasn't hard to guess Daryl's based upon that. "Daryl, I didn't—"

"He did the same to ya," Daryl replied, standing up and walking off again.


	2. Chapter 2

"This place could be something…" Danielle said as she trailed behind with Merle. Daryl was leading them into their cell block, where they would be living.

"If these assholes don' kill us first," Merle murmured. He hated the idea of having to be under the same roof as a group that despised him.

"They won't," she said. She gave him a reassuring smile as they went up the steps to the upper level of cell blocks. "They aren't killers…"

"Everybody is if they have to be." Merle knew that when it all came down to it, people would kill anybody that threatened their own livelihood.

"How's this gonna work?" Daryl asked. "Ya wanna share 'er—?"

"I want my own," Danielle said.

"Pick one. Showers work, but the water's cold," with that, the younger Dixon left and the area.

"Despite what you think, all people aren't terrible deep down. Some of them have hearts."

"The dead ones," Merle scoffed. "If yer 'ive now, ya've done things ya ain't proud of."

He was right, in a way. Nobody that was alive had a completely clean slate, but that didn't make them bad people.

"Yer different since we left Woodbury. The hell happened to ya? All of a sudden. Back 'ere on the bridge ya weren't ya."

"Maybe I was and you just don't know me as well as you think you do."

"I've spent the better part of a year with ya, I think I know little bit 'bout ya."

"Or you think you do," she replied, going into her new cell. She wasn't the cold, hardened killer that Merle and the Governor both thought that she was. She had been assisting Merle on his errands for the Governor for some time now and she didn't really want to do that anymore. She would rather be someone that only killed walkers or people that were actual dangers to her own safety.

"Who are you?" a boy about thirteen with long hair and blue eyes walked up and asked Danielle. He took a seat at the table she was sitting at with a bowl of noodles in front of her.

"Danielle," she replied, not saying anything more. She wasn't the biggest fan of children. Usually she tended to avoid them all together. After her past, she never wanted to mother children or even be an aunt of sorts.

"Are you going to cause this group any trouble?" he asked.

"I don't plan on it, kid," she replied, getting up from the table and putting her bowl in the sink and heading towards her cell again. She didn't know how she felt about this new group…She didn't know anybody except for Merle and she nearly missed Woodbury, at least there she knew people.

"Danielle?" she was nearly to her cell when she heard a vaguely familiar voice call her name. She realized why the voice was familiar, it was Daryl.

"Yeah, Daryl?" she asked, taking a step towards him. "You can just call me Dani if you want. That's what Merle usually calls me," she added. She was sure that he had told him that already but she told him again anyway.

"I don' know ya an' I ain't gonna pretend I know what's goin' on with ya an' my brother, but I wanna thank ya for keepin' him 'live back in Atlanta," he replied.

"Anybody else would've done the same thing."

"No they wouldn't of," he said. "They woulda jus' kept on goin'. He had to be a stubborn ass an' cut 'is own damn hand off. We came back for 'im."

"I don't doubt that you did, but I'll tell you something because you're his brother, he still holds a grudge against Rick and everybody else. If any of this is going to work, he needs to let go of that. He needs to move on and get rid of his anger…" Danielle said, running her hand though her dark, curly hair.

"Don' know how he's gonna do that…"

"I don't either. But like I said, he's gonna have to." Daryl nodded and they continued walking. "He's not as bad as this group thinks he is…I'm sure you know that but he's really not _bad_."

Daryl wasn't sure how to respond to that one. He had seen many different sides to Merle. He had seen the side that was a pretty good older brother and actually tried to teach Daryl things or when he tried to protect Daryl and he also saw the side of Merle when he was high and awful to everyone. But, he hadn't heard from pretty much anybody that Merle wasn't a bad guy. It was strange. "Ya mean he ain't made any sexual comments to ya?"

"Oh no, he has, lots of times. But it's not like he tries to act on it…At first there was some sexist stuff too, but it's been a long time since I heard any of that shit."

Daryl could only think about how high of a patience level she must have. Merle could be a pain in the ass, once he got started, it was hard to stop him sometimes.

"So if you were at Woodbury, do you know what he plans to do to us?" a blonde girl that Danielle had never met before asked.

"I don't, I'm sorry. I wish that I did."

"I'm Beth by the way."

"Danielle—Dani, whatever."

"Maggie told me that you were one that helped take her hostage…"

"Oh shit…I'm sorry about that...I need to remember to apologize…" she stood up and went to find Merle. He needed to apologize as well. She found him in his cell, lying on his prison bunk. "Hey," she said, taking a seat at the end. She patted his leg, it was one of the odd showings of friendly affection she gave him from time to time.

"Hey," he replied.

"Maybe…we should apologize to that girl and her boyfriend for kidnapping them."

"Hell no," Merle replied. "The hell shoul' I do that? They wouldn't tell me where Daryl was. 'Sides, it ain't like they're dead 'er anythin' now."

"Merle…we're on the outs, we have to make the group hate us a little less…"

"I don' care what a bunch of assholes think."

"I don't either, but if we're going to stay it, I don't think that it can like this. Daryl has made a life for himself here; I think that you can too. I want to at least try to do something normal."

"When ya said I didn't know ya yesterday, what did ya mean?" that was all he cared about knowing. He didn't want to apologize to Maggie, Glenn, or Michonne. The way he saw it, he didn't owe them anything.

"I meant that this isn't who I was…This isn't who I wanna be, Merle." He stared at her, wanting more explanation than that. "I don't like murdering anything, let alone human being…" He may have done the majority of the killing, but she still ended up killing plenty of people as well."

"We did what we had to," he mumbled.

"I know. But seriously, think about apologizing to the people in this group…It can't hurt anything."

"Are you going to do it?"

"Yeah, I am. And if you do it now…you won't have to go it alone. I'm not saying that you need me, but…we committed these crimes against the group together…" She realized that she always had to be careful how she phrased things around Merle. She knew that he had a short fuse that blow at the littlest of things, it was like walking on eggshells at times.

"Fine," he agreed.

**AN: Two chapters up now, yay! I would love it if y'all reviewed. It always makes me smile to read what you thought of my writing. Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

Daryl was still trying to make sense of Merle and Danielle. They weren't a couple...yet Merle actually respected her? Daryl couldn't put his finger on why; Merle had never respected anybody, let alone a woman.

"Alright, if you've got a question, then ask it," Danielle said, looking over at Daryl. The two were on watch. Rick didn't trust Merle to take watch so he put Danielle with Daryl. He was a little surprised by her question. "You've got the same look on her face Merle gets when he's thinking."

"Why does he talk to ya the way he does?" Daryl decided that question would be the easiest way for him to get answers.

"What do you mean?" Danielle asked.

Daryl sighed, he was really trying not to say the wrong thing to her. "Usually, Merle talks to people-'specially women like they're dirt. He don' do that to ya."

"He knows that if it weren't for me he wouldn't be alive right now...It's been more or less just us for nearly a year...Sure, we were at Woodbury, but it was always the two of us..." She wasn't sure how else to make Daryl understand, the only thing she could do was go into detail about the past year.

_ Atlanta was hell. Danielle was sure of that. The dead were around every corner. She could barely breathe without one being on her tail. She was trying to gather enough fuel, supplies, and weapons to leave the city. Sure it had all the threats, but the city also had the supplies that she would need to make it in the outside world. She had lived out in the country most of her life and she was confident that she could do it even now, but she would need resources to start that new life. _

_ Danielle was about to dart across the street when she saw a man stumbling down the aforementioned street with blood covering most of his clothes and she noticed that he had a stump where his right hand should be...In the state he was in, she was sure that he was one of the dead. She pulled her knife out, just in case, as she went to hurry across. If he followed her, she would kill him, but other wise, killing a walker took too long and usually it drew more attention, that was why she wanted to avoid it. _

_ "Hey..." as she began running, she heard that singular word from his mouth. The dead didn't speak, that much she knew. _

_ "Shit," she cursed. As much as she just wanted to run and leave him behind, she couldn't. "Dammit, come here," she put an arm under he shoulders and more or less carried him to the apartment building she had kept clear-her apartment building. The stairs proved to be a lot harder with a man that weighed quite a bit more than her on her shoulders. Eventually, she was able to lift him into apartment 7A and set him down on the once nice leather couch. Now it would be covered in this man's blood. "Were you bit?" she asked him, he was still awake, but barely. _

_ "No...Cut off mah own hand..." _

_ "That wasn't smart, now was it?" she rolled her eyes and grabbed his right arm and held it above his head. _

_ "The hell ya doin'?" he asked._

_ "You have to keep it higher than your heart...It'll slow the bleeding." Though it appeared he had already burned the stump in hope to stop the bleeding, there was still blood dripping out of it and onto his face. She reached to grab her belt from around her waist, but found that it wasn't there...her last one had snapped yesterday when she used it to climb out of a window. "Take your belt off and hand it to me," she commanded. _

_ A grin appeared on his dirty and bloodied face that showed he was thinking something far from what she was as he tried to use one hand to take off his belt, but it wouldn't work. Danielle let out an endless stream of curse words as she took the damn thing off for him and put it around the middle of his arm. _

_ He didn't wake up until much later. "You better prove to be worth as much as much trouble as you've caused," Danielle murmured as she set a pile of clothes on the coffee table. _

_ "The hell's that for?" he asked. _

_ "They're clothes, you wear them. Your's are bloody and I don't want you walking around my apartment like that. Bathroom is down the hall and to the right, there's some water in there you can use to clean yourself up. I'm Danielle by the way." _

_ "Merle," he mumbled, forcing himself up from the couch. She could tell that he wasn't the type to ask for help so she wasn't going to offer it. She had helped him enough for one day. _

_ A few minutes later, Merle walked back out of the bathroom and found himself in the kitchen were Danielle was preparing food for the two of them. _

_ "What'd ya mean by the trouble I've caused?"_

_ "Look out the window," she told him as she pointed to living room window. _

_ Merle saw about fifteen walkers. They would be inside, had there not been cars all around the building. _

_ "They smelled your blood and followed it...We're lucky there's not more..." she murmured. _

_ "Why'd ya save me, then?" _

_ "I don't know. But, like I said, you better prove to be worth all of the trouble. Here," she brought him a plate with some canned green beans and a sandwich? _

_ "A sandwich?" he asked. _

_ "Amazing, isn't it? I've been running a generator off and on to keep food frozen...I tried freezing the bread and it worked. It's ham, by the way..." _

_ The next after noon, they were taking account of the supplies that Danielle had gathered. She told him of her plan and he told her about how he had a brother at a camp just outside the city. They planned on leaving about four days later to meet back up with them. Earlier, they heard gunshots in the distance that drew most of the walkers away from the building. "I'm going out later to find supplies," Danielle decided. _

_ "I'll go with ya."_

_ "No. You're going to stay here and rest." _

_ Usually, Merle would've protested, but she had this tone that made him realize that there wasn't a choice in the matter. He decided that he was only acting strange because of his blood loss and he would be back to normal when he regained all of the blood he was supposed to have in his body. But something was bothering him a little bit._

_ "Ya a nurse 'er something?" _

_ "No, why?"_

_ "How'd ya know what to do?"_

_ "Trust me, I've had my fair share of injuries..." _

_ The way she said it told him that she didn't mean since the apocalypse hit and he understood what she was talking about right away. _

_ "Injuries ya couldn't go to the hospital fer?" he asked, she looked down, and nodded slowly. Yep, he knew exactly what she meant. Maybe it was that reason that Merle couldn't simply yell at this girl and demand to go with her to get supplies, he also hadn't found himself saying sexist things to her. She had clearly proved herself if she had this high volume of supplies and had survived this long. "Have ya been on yer own the whole time?"_

_ "All but the first two weeks. My boyfriend was with me up until then..." _

_ "One of them git 'im?" Merle asked, motioning to the outside world. _

_ She didn't answer. She didn't want to. He could draw his own conclusions, but she promised herself she wouldn't speak of that night again. Especially not if the world went back into order. _

_ "Do you hear that?" she asked, looking up at the window. It had been two days since they had heard the gunshots. The hum of a car caught her ears. She stepped away from the supplies and tip toed over there. She peaked out the curtain and saw two men step out of a SUV and start heading towards the building. "There's people outside..." she murmured, more to herself than Merle. "Help me hide this stuff..." they both started pushing different tubs of items into the bedroom that belonged to Danielle. "Here," she handed him a hand gun while she picked up an semi-automatic rifle. _

_ She heard footsteps near the door and she held up her gun, keeping the center of the door in her cross hairs. "Don't shoot unless they give you a reason to..." She still wasn't for killing innocent people. If they had the intent to harm them, then she could kill them, but not otherwise. _

_ "The door locked?" Merle asked. _

_ "No, I lost the key so I stopped locking it..." she admitted. Walkers didn't open doors also had an influence of her not locking the door. _

_ As the door knob turned, they both readied themselves for whatever was behind it. _

_ "Lookie here, Martinez, looks like we've got live once," a man with a southern draw and a presence that said he was the leader of wherever he was from spoke first. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. _

_ "Stay back," Danielle warned._

_ "We ain't here to hurt ya. We were lookin' for supplies an' survivors. We have a town about an hour out of the city...Come back with us." Danielle didn't dare drop her weapon. "Anything is better than bein' surrounded by a world of walkers, ain't it?" _

_ Danielle looked over to Merle. He didn't know what to make of this either. _

_ "We've got medical care too, looks like you're hurt pretty bad," he said to Merle. "I'm Phillip Blake," the man introduced himself, he kept his eyes on Danielle, knowing that she was going to be the harder sell here. "Here, I'll give you two a minute to discuss," he walked out of the apartment and closed the door behind him. _

_ "What do you think?" she asked Merle. _

_ "If he ain't lyin' it migh' be worth it..."_

_ "How do we know he's not lying though?"_

_ "We don'. How'd ya know I wasn't gonna kill ya?" _

_ "You were injured and I could've killed you before you got the chance." _

_ "We shoul' go. Go back an' git Daryl after." _

_ "Alright..." Danielle agreed with a sigh._

"If you're stuck with somebody you kind of learn to like them," Danielle said to Daryl, finishing her story.

"An' he never tried to get ya in bed with 'im?" Danielle found herself laughing a little.

"He did, many times, but he was the first man I've ever been able to trust and I didn't want to ruin that..."

"The first man ya could trust?"

"You, me, and Merle are a lot more alike than you think..." she sighed.

**AN: Please review! Happy New Year's Eve!**


	4. Chapter 4

"This is a bad idea," Danielle said. Even though Rick, Carl, and Michonne had just brought back more weapons, she still knew that meeting with the Governor was a terrible idea. That man was unpredictable and could just kill them all.

"Don' matter," Daryl said. "'S what we gotta do." Merle looked over at Danielle and then sighed.

"She's right," Merle said. "He's going to shoot y'all dead when he sees ya."

"Andrea set up this up. I don't think she's going to lead us to our deaths," Rick said. It was just the four of them and Hershel talking, which as odd as it was, kind of made sense. Merle and Danielle had lived around the Governor and knew him better and Rick, Daryl, and Hershel were all going to this meeting.

"You didn't see the two of them in Woodbury," Danielle scoffed. When nobody said anything, she sighed. "Okay, if you're going through with this, let me come with you. I know him better than you three do."

Rick and Daryl shared a look. "She coul' help," Daryl replied.

The group's leader wasn't so sure about that idea. He did trust Danielle more than he trusted Merle, but then if she and Daryl both came with them, who would be at the prison to keep Merle from doing anything reckless?

"Ya sure ya wanna do that?" Merle asked Danielle. She nodded, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Okay, you can come along," Rick agreed. "We're leaving very soon, so get whatever you need together."

Danielle turned and headed to her cell. Merle followed her up to the second level.

"Ya know how he can be, don' let yer guard down," Merle cautioned her.

"I know. Believe it or not, I did survive on my own for a while," she smiled. He hated to admit it but he was worried about her. If something went wrong, he wouldn't just lose his brother, he would lose the only person he could call a friend.

"I kno' ya did. Take this though," he handed her his 'lucky' knife. He always had the buck knife on him and he had once referred to it as his 'lucky' knife.

"I can't do that, Merle. What if you need it?"  
"I'll be fine. Take it, leave me yers..." The two knives were almost the same size, but his had a sharper point on the end. She pulled hers out of her holster and gave it to him as she put his knife in the holster by her hip. She tucked her shirt behind it, just as he had taught her a while back.

"You be careful here, too," she debated whether or not she should say something more, this was actually the first time that they weren't going to be at the same location at the same time. She went with Merle on every errand The Governor sent him on. She patted his shoulder and went back into her cell.

While in her cell, she pulled hair dark, curly hair into a ponytail, checked the clip of her gun-it was fully loaded, and grabbed two extra clips and shoved them in her pocket. She walked outside in search of the group she was leaving with. Daryl was doing something with his-well technically Merle's bike. She assumed that he was making sure everything was in working order.

"I've wanted to ride on this for a while now," Danielle said looking at the bike. "Merle had said multiple times that you better be taking care of his bike," she smiled softly.

"Ya can ride with me to the meetin' if ya want," Daryl replied. She looked at him in surprise.

"Really?" he nodded. Because of her close relationship with Merle, he felt like they should be close too. "Thanks, that would be great."

"Whatcha mean the other day when you said we're more 'like than I think?"

"What do you think I meant?" she questioned. She didn't want to say it.

"'S why 'm askin' ya."

"See this?" she pulled the left side of her shirt-that covered her shoulder down. Daryl saw a circular raised mark on her pale skin. "Do you know what that was made by?" He had an idea, but he shook his head. "A cigarette lighter, one that's in a car...That was when I made my boyfriend wait five minutes to pick me up from work." Daryl's jaw tightened. He didn't like hearing about that sort of thing. His dad did it to him, but he saw what Danielle's boyfriend had done to her as worse, somehow.

"Why not jus' leave 'im?"

"I tried." She didn't elaborate. Rick and Hershel came walking out and got in there little green car. Daryl got on the bike followed by Danielle. None of them speaking a word.

The pulled up to an old feed mill. Daryl parked the bike and both he and Danielle got off of it. Rick got out of the car and they silently went to do a sweep of the area. There was one dead walker, it was killed clean, through the head. Somebody had already been there. Danielle followed Rick and Daryl towards the building they were supposed to meet at. Rick walked through the doorway and Danielle followed Daryl to the side of the building.

She wouldn't be surprised if The Governor had already hidden weapons around the perimeter. "He's already in there," Daryl murmured, looking through the window.

"Shit," Danielle replied. She knew that wasn't a good sign. Her suspicions about him having various weapons around the area were probably correct. "He doesn't play fair. His men could be all around us right now...We should've brought more people."

"An' left the prison unprotected?" He had a point. No matter what, there could be a blood bath at either location. "This don' feel righ'."

"No, it doesn't." She agreed. They walked over to the car Hershel was in as it pulled up. Daryl explained that The Governor was already inside.

"I haven't seen a single car," Hershel murmured.

"Up ahead," Danielle pointed out. A large cream colored SUV pulled in and Daryl held his crossbow on the three people that stepped out; Andrea, Martinez, and Milton.

"Why's yer boy a'ready in there?" Daryl asked.

"He's here?" Andrea questioned, heading for the inside of the building.

"Danielle, I'm glad to see you alive," Milton said with a small smile.

"You too." He was a sweet man. She wasn't going to just ignore him.

"Maybe I should go in there too," Hershel said.

"The Governor thought it best for he and Rick to speak alone," Milton said.

"Who the hell're you?" Daryl asked.

"Milton," he replied.

"And what do ya do?" Daryl pressed. "Ya his butler?"

"I'm his advisor, actually."

"Advisor of what?"

"I don't really feel like I need to explain myself to the henchman," Milton replied. Danielle just rolled her eyes.

"Better watch yer mouth, Sunshine," Daryl started to step closer to Martinez and Milton. One thing that Danielle knew better than to do was get between a Dixon man when they were about to fight. She stepped back, if Daryl got himself hurt, she knew that would be her fault. She had made the mistake of getting between Merle and somebody once. It wasn't like Merle hit her, he was just extremely pissed after.

"If we've gotta be stuck out here, do me a favor and shut up," Martinez told Daryl. That only put Daryl on the defensive as he stepped closer to the other man. Martinez stood up and they were nearly chest to chest.

Knowing how quickly this could escalade, Danielle decided that it would be best for everyone if she stopped whatever was about to happen. "Guys just stop," she said. "If I know anything about those two, we'll be killing each other by the end of the day anyway." The two men continued to glare at each other. Daryl backed up first though and walked off.

"Do you really think that?" Milton asked her.

"Yes. This isn't going to solve anything. Nothing is going to change."

"She's right. Girl was always smart," Martinez said. Danielle hadn't really known Martinez too well. "Damn shame you were with Merle. You would be great to have at Woodbury."

"I'd rather be at the prison," she replied simply. "Better people." She too turned away, seeing Martinez made her think of the horrors she had helped to commit.

There were distant growls. Daryl was the first to jump into action, Danielle, Martinez, and Andrea all followed behind. Sure, all of them didn't have to go, but what else did they have to do? It was boring out there. They arrived to an area with no more than ten walkers.

"You first," Martinez told Daryl.

"No, after you," Daryl said. Danielle and Andrea shared a look, for once they were on the same page. They each went to an oncoming walker and killed it with a knife. Danielle took Merle's lucky knife out of the walker's skull and wiped the blood on her pants. Then, Daryl and Martinez started killing walkers. Seeing that this was about to turn into a pissing contest, Danielle and Andrea silent decided the they could figure it out on their own.

"Men," Danielle murmured.

"They're children, I swear," Andrea shook her head.

"This isn't going to do a damn bit of good..."

"It doesn't look that way."

"They're both too stuborn...Why didn't you leave when you had the chance?"

"I couldn't do it, he's not what you think he is. You of all people should understand that..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're the one that spent months with Merle, at least Phillip doesn't say the things that Merle does."

"But deep down, he's a good person, one that I can trust. Can you say the same about The Governor?"

Andrea didn't answer, she simply sighed. Danielle didn't press further, she somehow did understand Andrea's problem, but it had nothing to do with Merle...The Governor and Merle weren't even alike. Merle didn't take pleasure in killing people, he did it because that was what he had to do to stay in Woodbury.

Danielle was leaning against the building when Daryl came back. He was puffing on a cigarette he stood next to her and held the pack out to her. She shook her head.

"I don't smoke," she said. "Never have. And now doesn't seem like a good time to get addicted to something there's a short supply of," she gave him a slight smile.

"It'd distract ya, keep yer mind busy." She shook her head still.

"Thanks though..." They stood there quietly for a moment. Neither of then knew what to say to the other. It wasn't an awkward silence, but a comfortable one.

"Ya got Merle's knife," Daryl pointed out.

"He loaned it to me," Danielle said. The blue eyed man looked over at his female counter part with a brow knitted in confusion. Merle wasn't one to share anything, especially when it came to weapons and never his knife. "He said that his was sharper, in case I needed to use it..."

"'S weird."  
"Why?"

Daryl didn't get the chance to answer, Rick and The Governor walked out of the building and everybody parted ways.

"Can I ride with you again?" Danielle asked Daryl. He nodded and they both got on the bike. Daryl drove back to the prison with the green car behind them.

**AN: I hope that Merle isn't too OOC...I know that he is, somewhat, but I'm trying to keep that to only a little bit. Please review, those of you that have, thank you so much, you're awesome!**


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